CarComplaints.com Notes: As long as catastrophic engine failure at under 60,000 miles is the top owner complaint, it'll be pretty hard to recommend the 2012 Sorento.
10.0
really awful
Crashes / Fires:
2 / 6
Injuries / Deaths:
2 / 0
Average Mileage:
63,994 miles
About These NHTSA Complaints:
This data is from the NHTSA — the US gov't agency tasked with vehicle safety. Complaints are spread across multiple & redundant categories, & are not organized by problem.
So how do you find out what problems are occurring? For this NHTSA complaint data, the only way is to read through the comments below. Any duplicates or errors? It's not us.
My car has been having strange intermittent engine troubles & symptoms. (the first symptoms appeared in September 2019) it started with the accelerater going out on the highway over about 50 mph once or twice randomly. About a month later it did it again. And then this time it also stalled at a stop sign. Other times it feels like the car engine hiccups. It will lose power and come back on within a half second. And then continue as if nothing happened for another month. Recently the symptoms are happening more often. It is terrifying. I can't drive on the highway because I am so scared. At this point, these symptoms have now taken place numerous times and it doesn't matter what speed - when in motion up to 60-70 mph, around 30 mph, at a stop sign, when I was trying to turn left, etc. I have taken it to a mechanic several times since the first symptom. And I have taken it to a Kia service location. All have said the car seems to be running great and there are no codes showing up or engine lights coming on. They cannot see anything wrong with the car unless the symptoms appear. I have seen some articles online about a recall for Kia's of my year with the same symptoms, but this recall is not on my VIN" I am honestly so upset because I loved this car. I have been looking for a new car, but I really just wanted to get this fixed. I do believe my car is affected by the other recall, but why isnt it showing up? what do I do? this car is putting my life and other peoples lives in danger. I have a lot of travel coming up and I don't know what to do. I need a safe car and I am terrified to drive right now. Can you please help me"
Had two motors replaced. The catalytic converter crumbled when mechanics replaced motor now want to charge me 3000 why would this crumble and should be replaced as engine probabaly damaged it may have even caught fire and didn't know
Motor just all of locked up with no warning I was driving and all of sudden I hear the fans start blowing loudly I pulled over and turned the car off and it hasn't started since, now I'm without vehicle
My wife and I have been driving this vehicle for over 2 years now. About two years ago, this banging noise started which felt like we hit something or an object the road (just one big bang noise). The second time it happened we took it the aaa and they serviced it and made some repairs to it and replaced some parts. The noise went away and now (Feb 2019), I am driving on the highway at 60 miles per hour and it came back and happened three times already. Upon researching the cause of this issue, I am here on this site trying to find answers for these issues. Now, I do not want our car to catch fire since I've read a few people were experiencing this horrifying predicament. What are we to do" will Kia take care of this issue before something worse happened" it seems to be case with these recalls, something terrible has to happen.
I purchased this vehicle used with 98K+ miles on it from stevens creek Subaru. They did not disclose any recalls nor any issues with the vehicle. This week, I began hearing a clicking noise in the gear shift console every time I braked. Its sounds like something hitting piece of plastic. It hasn't changed the performance of the car that I can easily tell. However, this evening, my maintenance light came on and is not turning off. The dealership says the car was serviced before I drove off the lot, but given it didn't even have washer fluid, I'm not convinced it was serviced properly. I'm also noticing that the vehicle doesn't shift easily when I am needing to pick-up speed when entering the highway. The shift transition isn't smooth. Another issue is the heat feature on the driver seat does not work - it worked a week prior when I test drove the vehicle.
I was driving myself and my brother southbound on the 101 freeway near tempe, AZ on Monday, February 4, 2019 at approximately 10:20am when we suddenly heard a loud explosion over our heads and saw glass raining down through the overhead visor and off the back of the car. Stunned and shocked, I carefully made my way across three lanes of busy morning traffic to pull over to the shoulder and inspect the damage. The entire sunroof had shattered, leaving jagged glass particles over the top and inside the sunroof mechanism, as well as inside my car. I'm grateful my two children weren't sitting in back or they may have been cut by the spraying glass! we had been traveling at average highway speeds, during a cool, cloudy day. It was about 55 degrees and there was no significant activity or debris on the road that morning. I never noted prior damage to the roof and was traveling with the sunroof completely shut that morning. This was an absolutely terrifying experience that very well could have caused an accident. I'm furious to find so many reports of these incidents occurring! recalls must be made and a better solution needs to be in place!
On three occasions in the last two years, my 2012 Kia Sorento, while cruising at the speed limit of appx 55 mph on a major highway, totally lost power. Dashboard lights were blinking, but nothing else was operable. On the first two incidents, I managed to steer car onto shoulder. I put the car in park and tried to start it again. After about 30 seconds, car restarted. I was able to drive normally after that. Later on the evening of the first incident, sometime in 2016, I replaced the battery in the fob and thought that solved the problem. After second incident (3/5/17), I took car to herson's Kia in rockville, md. They did a diagnosis, which reported no problems. After the third incident (12/12/18), I took it back to herson's Kia. They checked and saw that a recall procedure (SC 106) that was supposed to have fixed the problem had been performed on an earlier visit. They again performed a diagnostic, which again reported no problems. They basically said they couldn't do anything about it if they couldn't diagnose the problem. This third incident was pretty frightening because the car lost power in the center lane of a five-lane highway, so I couldn't pull over. This is obviously a situation that could be life-threatening. Although my web research finds that this has happened to many other 2010--2013 Kia Sorentos, , Kia doesn't seem to be able to figure out what the problem is or know what to do about it.
Door handles broke off, air bag light is turned on after replacing battery in car, and car won't pass smog because O2 sensor readiness and fuel system monitors won't show ready even though there is nothing wrong with the car and car is not pulling any error codes, both upstream and downstream O2 sensors were replaced, air filters changed, and fuel system was flushed and still did nothing to make the monitors show ready
"takata recal". my Kia 2012 with current millage 49,000. No accident. Airbag light is on. Check engine light is on. Brought my vehicle to Kia dealer. They said intake manifold need to be replaced and it cost around $900.
While driving all warning lights on dashboard turned on and my car started shaking and I hear the engine turn off while in the middle of driving. I was in a residential area going down hill and speed limit was 25 mph so I was able to pull to the side of the road. The lights would stay on and would not turn off. The gears were stuck as well, it would not let me park the car. I waited a few minutes to turn car off and it worked. I used the emergency brakes to keep car from rolling. I then waited a few minutes to turn car on lights on again and was able to shift the car into park. I have my car service routinely and no warning of something like this could happen.
'takata recall' I continue to smell a burning smell under my hood but no one can seem to find it. It come and goes I had it checked was told all fluids are fine and no leaks. I pray it never catches fire as I have a grandson who rides with me often. Also my rear break light go out ever two months not sure why it is not just one side they take turns each side. Pressure in tires tend to go low very often for no reason please help me find out what is really wrong before something bad happens 🙏🙏 the burning smell scammers the most but I smell while in motion.
My Sorento made a clanging noise then the engine caught fire. The car was totalled. I was on a busy city road in cincinnati when it caught fire. It was in motion, I pulled into a parking lot before it died.
While driving on highway 50 about 20 miles from South lake Tahoe my car just stalled out while traveling at the speed of about 55 mph. Steam/smoke from coming from the front end. As I pulled over to the side of the road other motorist traveling West bound started honking and pointing to the vehicle. After stopping is when we realized the engine area was on fire. After opening the driver side door the flames shot out from under that car causing 3rd degree burns to the back calf on my left leg. The car was in totally in flames within 5 to 10 mins.
The break lights stopped working and the electronic stability control ESC and downhill breaking control dhc lights came on. I was alerted to the break light issue when I was stopped by a fort worth police officer. I tried to fix the problem by checking the break light bulbs (they were good), the fuses were all good. I replaced the break switch with on bought from O'reilly auto parts. It did not fix the problem. I took it to mechanic who told me that the switch was bad, so I returned that switch and changed it again but still the lights didn't work. I took it to southwest Kia in mesquite and was charge $312.95 to fix a $19.41 part: Another break switch. I found this preposterous. As I was waiting in the waiting room I looked up Kia recalls and I found that previous year model vehicles had been recalled for this issue. I believe that this is a recurring issue and that 2012 and other model years having this same issue should be included in the recall...
The push button to open the gas tank door continuously has problems activating to open the door. You have to push the button several times rigoursly to engage the unlock mechanism. This has been happening for several months. I've been advised by other Sorento owners they too are having this issue.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
- Los Angeles, CA, USA